Chùa Tiên

Pagoda of Fairies

Useful Information

Location:	Hùng Vương, Chi Lăng, Thành phố Lạng Sơn, Lạng Sơn. (21.8363244, 106.756965)
Open:	no restrictions. [2024]
Fee:	free. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave Cave Church
Light:	Incandescent Coloured Light
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Chùa Tiên, Hùng Vương, Chi Lăng, Thành phố Lạng Sơn, Lạng Sơn.
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History

15th century	Chùa Tiên (Chua Tien, Pagoda of Fairies) built.
2017	city restores and renovates a number of items at Tien Pagoda.
2022	declared a Historic Monument.

Description

Chùa Tiên (Chua Tien, Pagoda of Fairies), also called Giếng Tiên (Fairy Well), is a cave temple built in a small cave in an elephant-shaped karst tower named Deo Giang - Van Vy mountain. It is located the southern part of Lang Son city, half a kilometre from Cầu Kỳ Cùng bridge. It was built during the reign of Le Thanh Ton (*1460-✝1497). A long stone staircase with 64 steps leads up to the cave entrance. The cave is so crowded with altars, and often also with people, that it is not easy to visit the cave. Unlike other cave temples in the city this one has not much cave to offer.

Once there was such a drought that the Ky Cung River dried up, the land cracked, the grass and trees withered, the fields were ragged. The villagers of Phja Luong had no water for drinking. One day, a group of children herding buffaloes in the village met a shabby, tired-looking old man who came to them to beg for food. The children happily shared their rice with the old man and honestly said: we just have rice for you to eat, but we don't know what to give you to drink, because the village has been without water for a long time. Feeling grateful for the children's honesty, the old man stomped on the rock with his heel. Immediately a stream of clear fresh water sprayed out, then he vanished into thin air. From this moment on, the villagers of Phja Luong had enough water to drink. Later the people guessed that the old man was the fairy, which was reigning over the Dai Tuong mount, and so the spring was called Fairy Well. They built a shrine to worship Fairies right next to the spring on the hillside of Deo Giang-Van Vi. Later a pagoda was built into the cave above.

The Song Tien cave contains a total of three temples. In the middle is the Tam Bao temple for the arhats. On the right is a temple for Tran Hung Dao, the national hero under Nha Tran who defeated the Mongol invaders. And on the left is a temple for Thanh Mau (Mother Goddess) and the souls of deceased Buddhist believers. The cave is named Động Song Tiên (Twin Fairies Cave), and there is another legend explaining this name.

Once two fairies played chess in this cave. They were so concentrated on the game that they became stone. The petrified fairies still stand in the middle of the cave passage.